Pronghorns have things to tighten up on in second semester

By Lethbridge Herald on January 8, 2025.

Herald Photo by Justin Seward U of L Pronghorns Kymani Pollard attempts a shot in the paint past the coverage of Jack-Henry Fox-Grey at a recent practice.

While the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns men’s basketball team is in a comfortable position heading into the second semester, there are aspects of their game that need to be tightened up as they push for the playoffs in late February.

“I think motivation is definitely there,” said Kenny Otieno, Horn men’s head coach.

“We’ve done a good job getting to a place where (we are) at right now in terms of fighting for playoffs or getting into playoffs. Now it’s just about how we can continue to build off of the things that we did well and some of the things that we struggle with and just keeping the  momentum going.”

Otieno want to team to work towards getting back to their identity that gave them success in the first few games of the season.

“Which was kind of leaning on our defence a little bit more than always trying to find ways to get better with our offence, (and) letting our defence dictate our offence in terms of getting stops and getting out in transition,” said Otieno.

He wants them to work on their struggles from the first half.

“So in some of our half-court offence and half-court defence,” said Otieno.

The coach also wants to see habits in ball pressure and weak side defence cleaned up.

Trusting in one another will be a big thing for the Horns too.

“So that when it comes game time, we’re not getting surprised or rattled by things that may happen that are not necessarily great for us,” said Otieno.

Local Horn, Jack-Henry Fox-Grey, wants to see the energy carried over from the first semester.

“I think we’re a very energetic team,” said Fox-Grey.

“One of the things that we’re kind of focusing on going into second semester is just like maintaining the energy we had in the first half and carrying it through to playoffs.”

A strength of the Horns has been their pace.

“That’s one of the things I talked about earlier is that we’re a team that can really get up and down the floor and we like to push in transition,” said Fox-Grey.

Fox-Grey thinks they will have success by improving their assist to turnover ratio, limiting opponents rebounds and increasing their own rebounding.

“Winning the rebounding battle is a big thing for us,” said Fox-Grey.

“We try to play with grit and aggression and try (and) outwork teams.”

The Horns are 5-3 and sit in fourth in Canada West’s Prairie Division and top seven teams make playoffs.

“I think we’re definitely trying to hunt for getting to the best position that we can possibly get,” said Otieno.

U of L hosts University of Alberta tomorrow (8 p.m.) and Saturday (7 p.m.) to kick off rhe second semester.